Page 76 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly
“Because without you,” Talia kissed the top of Callie’s head, “there is no Sesi and me.”Talia stared longingly at Sesi.“It wouldn’t make sense without her.”
The revelation ignited a spark of joy in Callie.
Sesi sighed.“It wouldn’t” she conceded.“But it also feels like dropping this on her after knowing each other for such a short amount of time is equally ridiculous.”
The joy was quickly replaced by the burden of responsibility.She couldn’t even keep Brin from tumbling into depression, and now she hadtwogirlfriends?And if she left, they would also fail as a couple?
Sesi saw Callie’s expression change and decided to rip the band-aid off.“We’re asking you for an egg.”
Callie looked up at Talia.“Why?We’re too old to have kids.”
“You are.And Talia is.I’m not.”
Callie narrowed her eyes.
“I’m definitely older than twenty-four,” Sesi laughed.She rolled her neck from side to side, trying to think of how to explain this as succinctly as possible.
“A few billionaires in the early 2100s figured out how to make an organelle that produced nanoids independently, but could also be manipulated to execute external commands.Their presence underpins almost all interfacing.Cyberware.Biosig sensors.DocPods.Without them, you can’t use any of it.The downside is that nanoids accumulate in the body and eventually overrun a foetus’s defences against being perceived as a parasite by the mother.”
“Can’t you just command them to not attack the foetus?”
Sesi shook her head.“Not without shutting down the mother’s entire immune system.The Natalists found that out the hard way.”
Talia winced at the mention of the Natalists.
“So, no babies after twenty-four.”Callie concluded.
“Right.”Sesi confirmed.Talia kept trailing her fingertips across Callie’s short hair.
“The good news,” Sesi continued, “Is that the DNA for the organelles is self-contained.If we remove it, it can’t pass it on.”
“In women.”Talia added.
“Yes, that’s a whole other issue, but you’re jumping ahead.”Sesi flicked Talia’s leg.
“And the bad?”
“Sperm cells are too fragile and we haven’t trained proper lab technicians in so long that no-one exists who can do the procedure without a DocPod or AI assisted lab tech, none of which work without the organelles.”
“You want to have my baby?”The words felt incredibly bizarre coming from her lips.
“And Talia’s.In exchange, we’ll get the current location of the Natalist labs.Their DocPods can extract eggs.”
“Also, I’ll get to kill a bunch of the fuckers,” Talia added, a hint of wicked delight in her voice.Callie had forgotten that as gentle as they were with her, murder was a way of life for them.And now they were asking her to have a child with them.Talia could feel Callie’s pulse increase and she held her tighter.“If you sayno, nothing will change between us,” Talia reassured her.The juxtaposition of violence and care made her head hurt, even as she remembered that she had killed two people herself.
“You’d give up your chance at revenge for me?”Callie couldn’t fathom it.“Why?”
“You really don’t know?”Talia asked.Callie’s wide-eyed stare was the only response she got.
“Because you’regood.”
“And not just agood girl.”Sesi joked.Talia kicked her.
“Sesi and I are both incredibly fucked up.Sesi practically raised herself and I escaped a cult.Can you imagine us two with kids?”
“But I don’t know anything about raising kids,” Callie protested.
“That’s not what she means,” Sesi interjected.“Look at how Talia behaves when she’s around you.She’s practically tame.”Callie thought she might have heard a growl in Talia’s chest.Sesi laughed.“See?She didn’t even threaten to kill me.”
